Craft Patterns Plus

Chicken Scratch Embroidery is mainly worked on Gingham and creates wonderful lace – like results.

This type of embroidery is also known as Snow flaking, Depression Lace, Gingham Lace or Australian Lace. It appears that Chicken Scratch Embroidery originated as a substitute for hand made laces for many who couldn’t afford the prohibitively expensive fine laces to embellish their clothing.  

No-one is certain as to when chicken scratching, or gingham lace was first devised although it is likely that it originated as an inexpensive way of dressing up clothes for the many who couldn't afford the luxury of handmade lace.  

One of the stories as to how the term 'chicken scratching' originated was that during the Great Depression, an impoverished farmer's wife needed to enhance on of her gingham dresses. Ideally she would have liked to use lace but, as it was prohibitively expensive at the time, she needed to come up with an alternative. She found a few skeins of embroidery thread in her needlework box and, being rather resourceful, set about creating her own lace effect pattern. When her husband discovered her working, he was curious and asked what she was doing. To which she replied that she was putting lace on her dress. The farmer commented that they looked like a lot of chicken scratches.  

This simple to work threaded cross stitch was popular through the 1930's in the United States, Canada and Australia. It is probably of peasant origin and has links with Spanish Openwork, Swedish Darning and the pattern darning on huckaback towels. In the past it was mainly used on tablecloths and tea cosies, however it is suitable for decorating almost any type of gingham or check fabric, adding a simple but unique detail